By Our Staff Reporter
Islamabad: Country’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence has made it loud it loud and clear that it was nothing to do with the May 26 attack on journalist Asad Toor.
The spy agency’s response came a few days after some controversial yet infamous journalists and member of civil society leveled allegations ISI claiming its involvement in the attack.
The statement came after a high-level contact between the Ministry of Information and the spy agency.
“The continuity of these allegations shows an organised conspiracy. The ISI has been the target of a fifth-generation war. An investigation into the attack must go ahead and strict action be taken against the perpetrators. The ISI will fully cooperate with investigation agencies,” the statement reads.
“Tradition of blaming the institutions without evidence should come to an end. “Such negative traditions are part of a conspiracy against the institutions,” it added.
Giving his prospective, Home/Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said a few people want to involve the ISI in the attack on Toor.
“[We] have found an important footage, through which [we] will reach the culprits,” he said.
Toor, an Islamabad based journalist working with a local news channel claimed he was attacked by unknown people who forced their entry into his flat last month on May 26, 2021.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) called the assault “yet another attack on freedom of expression and a free press.” London-based Amnesty International urged Pakistani authorities to “take urgent steps to provide journalists with greater protection, following years of spiralling threats, intimidation and attacks against media workers in Pakistan.”
Although Pakistan’s government insists it supports freedom of speech, journalists, and press freedom advocates accuse Pakistan’s military and other security agencies of harassing and attacking journalists.
Pakistan ranks 145 out of 180 countries on media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
Rasheed said the Islamabad inspector-general and the Federal Investigation Agency would bring the perpetrators to justice.